The Mystery of the Flaming Footprints - M. V. Carey [25]
He saw the back windows of The Potter’s house. The bedrooms were brightly lighted, and he could clearly see Pete sitting on a bed, talking with young Tom Dobson. There was a checker board between the two boys. Tom jumped one of Pete’s men, and Pete made a wry face and pondered his next move. Mrs Dobson came into the room carrying a tray on which there were three cups. Cocoa, Jupiter assumed.
Jupiter stepped away from the telescope and returned to the driveway. “We now know how they are amusing themselves,” he told Bob. “They are spying on The Potter’s house.”
“About what you expected,” said Bob. “Let’s get out of here, Jupe. Those two give me the willies.”
“Yes. And there is nothing more to be learned at the moment,” said Jupiter Jones.
The boys passed the Cadillac and headed for the retaining wall to let themselves down again into the dry steam bed.
“It’s closer here, I think,” said Bob, cutting across an open patch of ground which might once have been a kitchen garden.
And with that, Bob suddenly shouted, threw up his arms, and dropped out of sight.
Chapter 10
Caught
“BOB, are you hurt?”
Jupiter knelt beside the hole which had appeared in the earth. Below, in what seemed to be some sort of cellar, Jupe could barely see Bob getting to his knees.
“Blast!” said Bob.
“Are you hurt?”
Bob stood up and hunched his shoulders. “No, I don’t think so.”
Jupiter stretched full length on the ground and reached one hand towards Bob.
“Here!” he said.
Bob grasped the hand, put one foot on a shelf and tried to climb out of the hole.
Wood splintered under his feet and he
fell back, almost taking Jupe with him.
“Blast!” he said again, and then he
froze, caught by the sudden beam of a
very powerful torch.
“Do not move!” said the younger of
the two tenants of Hilltop House.
Jupiter did not move, and Bob
remained where he was, sitting on bare
earth at the bottom of the hole, staring up
past rotted, splintered planks.
“Exactly what are you doing here?”
demanded the younger resident of
Hilltop House.
Only Jupiter Jones could manage an
air of superiority while stretched full-
length on the ground. “At this precise
moment,” he said, “I was endeavouring
to get my friend out of this hole. Please
assist me, so that we can ascertain as
quickly as possible whether he is injured.”
“Why you impudent—!” began the
younger man.
This outburst was interrupted by a deep chuckle. “Peace, Demetrieff,” said the older, bald person. He knelt, surprisingly agile for one who was not slender, and reached towards Bob. “Can you take my hand?” he asked Bob. “We do not have a ladder on the premises.”
Bob stood up and stretched, and in a second the bald man had hauled him up through the jagged hole and set him upon his feet. “Now how does it go?” he asked.
“No bones broken, eh? Good. Nasty things, broken bones. I remember the time my horse fell on me. It was two months before I could ride again. It is painful when one must lie still and do nothing.” The bald one paused, then added in a cold voice,
“Naturally, I shot the horse.”
Bob swallowed, and Jupiter felt goose bumps come up on his arms.
“Klas Kaluk is not noted for his patience with bunglers,” said the younger man.
Jupiter stood up slowly, brushing dust from his clothes.
“Klas Kaluk?” he echoed.
“You would say General Kaluk,” the younger man informed him. Jupiter was suddenly aware that the younger man held a gun as well as a torch.
“General Kaluk.” Jupiter nodded to the bald one, then turned back to the man with the gun. “And you are Mr. Demetrieff,” he said.
“How did you know that?” demanded Demetrieff.
“General Kaluk called you by name,” said Jupiter.
The general chuckled again. “You have a quick ear, my plump friend,” he told Jupiter. “Boys with quick ears interest me. They hear many things. Shall we go into the house and discuss what you may have heard tonight?”
“Hey, Jupe,” said Bob quickly. “Hey, we don’t really want to. I mean, I’m okay, and we can go now